As equity compensation becomes a larger component of employee wealth, financial advisors are helping clients navigate the complexities of stock options, RSUs (restricted stock units), and ESPPs (employee stock purchase plans). Here, three financial advisors discuss how to balance the upside potential of equity awards with tax planning, concentration risk, diversification, and strategic exercise decisions.

As fewer people can now lean on the safety of pensions, or defined benefit plans, when they retire, clients are more often requesting retirement planning help as part of a comprehensive financial plan. Younger clients, especially those who work in the tech industry or at startups, also require financial and tax planning to help make sense of equity compensation plans.

US state and local government debt hit its cheapest level since the spring, after inflation fears caused municipal bonds to see their worst week of returns since April 2025.

In most cases, the reference narrative that an investor desires to protect is one in which the investor has access to desired cash flows at desired future times. The goal isn’t simply to build up wealth, though some investment strategy approaches might make you think it is.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. is hiring several muni sales and trading veterans, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Let’s get this out of the way right away: It’s highly unlikely the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates when policymakers meet this week after the latest data showed inflation has slowed.

Artificial intelligence operates at speeds and levels of complexity that its human creators can’t match. So what happens when it’s unleashed on financial markets?

BlackRock Inc. began marketing $12.3 billion of high-grade bonds to fund a Meta Platforms Inc. data center project, testing investor appetite amid growing concerns about excessive AI infrastructure spending.

US Treasuries are offering investors solid protection against losses as yields remain elevated, according to BlackRock Inc.

Alphabet Inc.’s impressive second-quarter earnings release on Wednesday seemed on course to go down mostly well with investors. Until the earnings call, the Google parent’s share price was up marginally in after-hours trading, buoyed by cloud growth that smashed estimates.

The first meeting is no longer the first impression; it is increasingly a validation point on a journey of trust building that the client and advisor have already started. Advisors who fail to recognize this shift are missing the most critical window in the entire client acquisition process.

The US 30-year bond yield is trading above 5% for the longest stretch since the dawn of the financial crisis, echoing investor concerns about a growing debt pile and sticky inflation.

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Wealth management firms are aware of the looming retirement wave and have put real effort into mitigating it through recruiting, training, succession planning, and technology to modernize the advisor workflow. But what’s truly at risk of being lost is the judgment that senior advisors have accumulated over decades

Charles Schwab Corp. reported earnings that topped estimates as retail investors continued to jump in and out of the market amid volatility sparked by geopolitical uncertainty.

Gold and silver rose on dip-buying, as traders monitored Middle East tensions for signs that higher energy costs could stoke inflation, putting pressure on the Federal Reserve to tighten policy.

After last week’s wipeout in chips and the broader selloff in technology stocks, pressure is building for the biggest spenders on artificial intelligence to justify their expenditures to beleaguered traders with increasingly itchy fingers hovering over their sell buttons.

A manager relying on the same opportunities everyone else can see has no structural advantage. The best managers see deals before they are widely shopped — through long-standing relationships with founders, operators, intermediaries, and co-investors. These unique networks are built over years, and there are no shortcuts.

Market forecasting has more in common with hurricane forecasting than most investors appreciate. The goal when managing an investment portfolio is not to predict a single outcome but to understand the environment well enough to establish a range of possible outcomes.

A record inflow hit the largest US-listed South Korea exchange-traded fund, as investors seeking exposure to SK Hynix Inc. piled into the ETF as a proxy at a time when the chipmaker’s new American depositary receipts trade at a substantial premium to its local shares.

BlackRock Inc.’s $12.55 billion bond sale tied to a Meta Platforms Inc. data center rallied in early trading on Monday in a sign that relatively high yields on the debt ultimately attracted investors.

Registered investment advisors (RIAs) are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools that automatically transcribe and summarize client calls. While these technologies may offer efficiency gains, they introduce significant legal and compliance risks. This article discusses the intersection of AI transcription tools with state wiretapping laws, privacy considerations, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirements, and the evolving litigation landscape.

Microsoft Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. face renewed investor anxiety over their debt-fueled capital expenditure plans after Alphabet Inc. raised the upper end of its spending forecast this year by as much as $15 billion.

The market is efficient enough that such high yields on corporate bonds and expensive valuations are not given out freely.  Your job as an advisor is to make sure your clients understand what that thing is before they hand you their hard-earned money.

US Treasuries edged higher as oil prices softened after the US paused its nearly two-week campaign of strikes against Iran, while traders eyed a roughly one-in-three chance of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike on Wednesday.

To be clear, SpaceX is unique. Starlink's subscriber economics provide a sustainable revenue base; the launch business has pricing power that thus far has not been challenged, and an xAI integration could, in the most optimistic scenario, open multiple trillion-dollar markets quickly. That said, analysts must carefully discount even the most tremendous forecasts.

Intel Corp.’s long-awaited turnaround is in progress, now that the artificial intelligence data center boom is fueling demand for its chips.

US equity futures on Friday were little changed, indicating stocks are poised to steady from the deepest one-day drop in a month, as Brent crude prices fell below $100 a barrel and a selloff in Big Tech shares eased.

Intel Corp. is expected to report strong second-quarter earnings after the market close Thursday, but even blowout results likely won’t be enough to reverse the stock’s July slide.

The global luxury industry, which has been grappling with three years of lackluster sales, may gain some relief as wealth generated by artificial-intelligence companies and their trillions of dollars of initial public offerings finds its way into fancy fripperies.

The first data releases since Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh took office suggest that inflation has subsided, making his job a little easier.

Blackstone Inc. leaned on Wellington Management Co. and Vanguard Group to create two new funds that will give individual investors access to private assets as it looks to go beyond its roots as a money manager for pensions and institutions to become more of a household name.

Digital assets have the products. They have access to vehicles such as ETFs, separately managed accounts, and direct custody. What they still lack is the foundational layer underneath those products: the agreed-upon definitions of what the market is, how its components are classified, and how performance is measured.

Government bonds are back in focus, as investors reassess where value lies in global fixed income. With markets wavering over how quickly interest rates will fall, sovereign debt in several developed economies is starting to look attractive again to us.

Investors poured billions into BlackRock’s exchange-traded fund tracking South Korean stocks, underscoring strong appetite for artificial intelligence companies even as wild swings continue to roil local equities.

Trading volumes on prediction markets are expected to hit $1 trillion by 2030. Overconfident traders think they are beating the crowd. Herders join it without thinking. Neither approach is likely to be a consistent winner.

Andy Burnham pledged a “new economic model” for the UK as he sought to reassure Britons that his ascension as their seventh prime minister in little over a decade would bring an end to the country’s political instability.

Whether you admire him or cringe at the mention of his name, US President Donald Trump has long had a penchant for putting his name on things. Once it was condos, steaks and Bibles.

US stocks advanced on Monday, paring last week’s slump, as chipmakers rebounded amid a deluge of earnings reports that will test whether Big Tech’s profits can match high expectations.

President Xi Jinping used the rise of China’s AI models to stake his claim on shaping the technology’s global rules, even as their growing power stirs security concerns in Washington and Beijing alike.

CME Group Inc. said the debut weekend of 24/7 trading for its one-ounce gold futures saw stronger-than-expected demand with deep liquidity despite subdued volatility.

Pimco has been one of the loudest voices warning of risks in private debt markets, and Ivascyn, 56, has cautioned on the trillions of dollars pouring into the infrastructure underpinning the artificial intelligence boom.

Many wealth managers offer tax-loss harvesting programs involving single stocks, sometimes with leverage and shorting. These tend to come with meaningful fees, considerable complexity, and can effectively involve long-term lock-ins.

Kioxia Holdings Corp. faces more wild price swings with leveraged exchange-traded funds tracking the Japanese memory chipmaker’s shares set to be listed in the US.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. are launching their first interval fund for the masses as Wall Street races to bring private investments to Main Street.

It is one of the great paradoxes of our time: Americans have never been richer — or more negative about the economy.

Gold edged higher, holding firmly above the key resistance point of $4,000 an ounce even as the widening conflict in the Middle East fuels expectations for tighter monetary policy.

Washington, DC is stepping up to borrow $1.2 billion this week at its annual municipal debt sale, tapping the market as its credit stabilizes.

US President Donald Trump said a civil nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia would be contingent on the kingdom normalizing ties with Israel, throwing cold water on a landmark deal his administration finalized just a day earlier.

When clients, specifically, feel they matter to their advisor, they engage more deeply in the planning process, follow through on recommendations, refer more frequently, and build lasting relationships that transcend market volatility.

By moving forward with the latest proposal, Trump would cement his commitment to tariffs, despite voter concerns about the cost of living heading into November’s midterm elections.

With AI spending skyrocketing, investors are looking for Alphabet Inc.’s earnings to show strong growth in its cloud-computing business, which would demonstrate a clear return on the company’s investments.

Digital assets have the products. They have access to vehicles such as ETFs, separately managed accounts, and direct custody. What they still lack is the foundational layer underneath those products: the agreed-upon definitions of what the market is, how its components are classified, and how performance is measured.

Strong economic momentum is a double-edged sword for US equity traders. Solid growth is an earnings tailwind. But let it run too hot, and it turns from blessing to curse.

The biotechnology sector is stealing the US IPO market thunder from artificial intelligence-related listings, delivering standout returns as bankers line up a steady stream of summer debuts.

A holistic approach to this important life transition involves careful thinking and conversation around investment strategy, tax efficiency, income needs, and estate planning. The goal, of course, is to minimize the drag of taxation on lifetime earnings and wealth accumulation while maintaining both compliance and attention to the client’s priorities and values.

Bond traders and Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh are in agreement on a crucial point: The central bank’s fight against inflation still seems far from over.

In the article, the CFP Board stated that its sanctioning process is intended to be both credible to the public and fair to CFPs, who can sometimes receive disclosures on their BrokerCheck profiles through no fault of their own.

A growing number of corporate leaders, buckling under the stress and uncertainty of the AI age, are looking for a very human solution: A chief of staff.

Apple Inc. is again the biggest company in the world after wresting the title from Nvidia Corp., which has held it since May 2025.